DAD OBIT

San Antonio Express-News

Dan Klepper, 1929-1993
Published: December 5, 1993
Friends, governor recall writer's accomplishments

Texas outdoorsman and journalist Dan Klepper , 64, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer, during which he continued to write his column for the San Antonio Express-News.

Klepper was mourned by no less a hunter than Gov. Ann Richards. The governor remembered Klepper as "a great Texan."

Richards, who went hunting with Klepper in 1992, was visibly saddened when informed of Klepper 's death as she was traveling near the Texas-Mexico border. It was during an appearance in Pharr that Richards called Klepper the voice of sportsmen of the Southwest.

"His love of the outdoors and wildlife was contagious. We have lost a great Texan," Richards said.

The governor spoke for a broad spectrum of Texans in extolling Klepper 's status as a noted outdoorsman and newspaperman.

Others around the state remembered Klepper as a crusader for the rights of the blue-collar hunter and fisherman.

Andrew Sansom, executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said, "Dan was the steadfast champion of the average hunter and angler the blue-collar worker who's just trying to get by and feed his family and he was absolutely fearless."

"Dan Klepper 's work touched every facet of the conservation community, but his greatest loves were the fish and wildlife resources of Texas ," said Rudy Rosen, TP&W fisheries and wildlife division director. "He tried to get the very best hunting and fishing experience for the sportsmen. And the best from this agency.

"Sometimes he took the agency to task on some issues, and he always made valid points. He always made us sit up and take notice because we knew he was always a voice in behalf of the sportsman."

"When one of the big ones falls, it leaves a hole on the horizon," said Charly McTee, executive director of the Texas Wildlife Association. "I don't know who the top five outdoor writers in the country might be, but if he is not one of them, the list is wrong.

"I'm devastated. His death robs us of 20 more years of his work. He always asked the penetrating question. He could have been a fantastic investigative reporter. He didn't go after anything maliciously, he just wanted to know the facts.

"He had an exceptional feel for relationships and how plants and animals and people fit together."

One TP&W official confided that Klepper was both the most respected and most feared outdoors writer in the state.

"There were many times when the secretary would say, 'Dan Klepper wants to speak to someone,' and we'd all head to the restroom. He could ask some mighty tough questions," the official said.

Klepper had been outdoor editor of the Express-News since 1956. He died at his Boerne home at 3 a.m. Saturday.

Services are secheduled to be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Porter Loring Funeral Home.

In an award-winning career that spanned five decades, Klepper had a telling impact on the way millions of Texans hunt and fish.

Among other things, he was recognized for:

- Compiling the first state records for fishing.

- Helping form the Texas Outdoor Writers Association. In 1961, he served as the organization's third president. In 1989, the TOWA honored Klepper with the L.A. Wilkie Award for career achievement.

- Helping establish the Conversationist of the Year award.

- Spawning the Texas Fishing Hall of Fame, now under construction at the TP&W Fisheries Center in Athens .

- Starting the statewide fishing report that is transmitted weekly to Texas newspapers by the Associated Press. The weekly report now runs 5,000 words and is considered the industry standard by conservation agencies in other states.

- Urging the TP&W to ignore county lines when setting different hunting regulations for the rocky Hill Country and brush-covered South Texas . Because of Klepper 's efforts, the TP&W has since adopted U.S. Highway 90 as the dividing line.

"Dan was much more to the Express-News than the outdoor editor, and his contributions weren't limited to the sports section," said Express-News Publisher and Chief Executive Officer W. Lawrence Walker Jr. "During his 37-year career at the Express-News, his influence was present in all aspects of our success.

"Dan was a unique individual who I am fortunate to have called my friend. We miss him," Walker said.

Retired Express-News Publisher Charles O. Kilpatrick remembered Klepper for his outstanding writing ability.

"He was an exceptional writer who could make the reader feel like a participant as he watched the sun silhouette a buck in the Hill Country, or as he fished exotic South American rivers or as geese zoomed out of the gray winter sky near Eagle Lake ," Kilpatrick said.

"Dan was a great and prolific craftsman able to write on any subject. His love of outdoors early on led him to specialize in his field, where he won national recognition for his knowledge, integrity and ability to paint word pictures," Kilpatrick added.

Sansom, the TP&W director, said he has fond memories of the hunting trip he took with Klepper and Gov. Richards in 1992.

"It was the most enjoyable hunting trip I ever had, especially because of the interaction between Dan and Ann," Sansom said. "Both were very salty and unafraid, and their bare-knuckle interview was a privilege to watch.

"A big part of the reason she enjoyed the trip so much was Dan because he was an excellent example of the traditional Texas hunter, and she has a wonderful sense of that."

Klepper 's wife, Nancy, said he returned home from that trip with high respect for Richards.

"He said she took off through the brush after those turkeys, and he'd thought he was in pretty good physical condition until he tried keeping up with her. He said she was quite a gal, and a good shot," Mrs. Klepper recalled.

Klepper spent his career doing things to make hunting and fishing better for the Texas sportsmen, officials said.

"I know he tweaked some big egos. But Dan was always a champion of the rank-and-file sportsman," said Paul Hope, recently retired information specialist with the TP&W. "The people who hunt and fish in this state have just lost a friend."

Ed Holder, a veteran outdoors writer in the Beaumont area, first met Klepper in 1956.

"Dan is one of a vanishing breed, and that's a newspaperman. I don't know of a higher compliment. By that I mean Dan was always striving for truth and accuracy. His pursuit was relentless," Holder said.

"The greatest blow will be suffered by the sportsmen of this state. Not many realize how relentless he would pursue the facts, especially if he thought a politician or a bureaucrat was not being fair to sportsmen.

"He was a woodsman and a keen student of nature and the environment long before the word 'environmentalist' came to mean what it does today.

"He always pushed to make things better for the sportsman," Holder said.deaths obituary